Killer Moth

Killer Moth is a Batman villain first appearing in Batman #63 published in 1951. Killer Moth originally wore a garish costume with striped purple and green spandex, orange cape and a moth-like mask.

History

His identity was millionaire Cameron Van Cleer. Setting himself up as the "anti-Batman," complete with Moth-signal, Mothmobile and Mothcave, he hired himself out to Gotham's criminals to help them escape the police. He was thwarted by Batman but remained a persistent enemy through the 80's. He is most remembered for being the first criminal fought by Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.

In the 90's he was re-invented as a "joke" character - a failure whose real name was revealed to be Drury Walker. He set up a team called "the Misfits", comprising second-string Batman villains such as Catman. This team proved unsuccessful. He then sold his soul to the demon Neron and was metamorphed into an actual killer-moth like creature by the name of Charaxes. As Charaxes, Walker resembles a vaguely humanoid giant brown moth. He is cannibalistic, and spins cocoons to keep his prey in.

At one point, much to his horror, Charaxes found himself laying hundreds of eggs, all of which hatched into duplicates of Drury Walker. Charaxes despised his progeny, but was unable to destroy them. Following his capture, these duplicates were taken into government custody. During an argument between various bodies as to what should be done with them, they attacked a scientist, and were killed.

At around the same time, Oracle was confronted by a man who claimed to be the real Killer Moth (the one she had defeated), and that Charaxes had been an imposter. It transpired that he was deluded, and was actually a former henchman of Felix Faust.

In Infinite Crisis, Charaxes is ripped in half by Superboy-Prime during the Battle of Metropolis, and thus presumed deceased.

Killer Moth II

Post-Infinite Crisis, a new Killer Moth was recently captured by Robin while attempting to rob a jewelry store.

Appearances in other media

A short episode of the 1967 Batman TV show that premiered Batgirl featured Killer Moth as the villain, but it was never aired. It can be found bootlegged through the internet or, sometimes, at conventions. However, in the characters simultaneous comic book introduction (Detective Comics #359, January 1967), "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl", Killer Moth is Batgirl's first adversary and main adversary after he leads her to believe that he killed Bruce Wayne, although Batgirl later learned that Wayne had not died, after confronting Batman and Robin.

Killer Moth appeared as a Boss character in the Nintendo video game: Batman: Revenge of the Joker

In the Teen Titans animated series episode "Date with Destiny," Killer Moth is a costumed (or maybe not costumed!) criminal that bio-engineers giant moth creatures that wreck havoc on the city in order to blackmail Robin into taking his spoiled daughter Kitten to the prom.

Killer Moth returns for "Can I Keep Him?," where he turned Starfire's pet worm Silkie against the Titans; he is eventually taken down by his own creation when Silkie decides that he prefers Starfire over Killer Moth.

Killer Moth and Kitten become members of the Brotherhood of Evil, and Kitten had returned to race against Robin with her "Fangie-Poo" but was thwarted by Red X. The two join in the final battle against the Titans in "Calling All Titans" where Killer Moth is armed with a laserwhip (That oddly resembles Wonder Woman's lasso) while Kitten steal Starfire's communicator with the aid of giant moths. Kitten is captured and Killer Moth is turned into an ice sculpture when Mas y Menos put him through Chang's flash-freezing machine.

Killer Moth was voiced by Thomas Haden Church in his first appearance and by Marc Worden in subsequent appearances.

Killer Moth will be making his debut on The Batman this fall. His design resembles the original costume in the comics. He will be played by Jeff Bennett.[1]

Killer Moth is often confused with the Batman villain Firefly. He is also mistaken for the cryptid "Mothman".